


There's Nothing Wrong With Me

by Banna_Banana (orphan_account)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-04-12 16:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4487100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Banna_Banana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico di Angelo is too scared to tell anyone that he can see ghosts, but who wouldn't be after being forced to see a psychologist? His doctor says that he needs to make friends, and Nico is finally ready to put in effort. Although a good friendship can't have secrets, and Nico has one that he'd really rather people not know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He has seen them since he was young, for about as long as he cares to remember. The first time was when his sister died; he became obsessed with the occult and tried to summon her ghost. He tried everything from Ouija Boards to psychics. All fake.  
A couple weeks after her death, he was still trying to summon her, but he was running himself ragged. There were countless bags under his eyes, his clothes hung off of his body more than usual, and his once invisible freckles were starting to stand out against his pale skin.  
He looked like a ghost.  
At least, that’s what one would think if they had never seen one, but Nico di Angelo, has seen a ghost, the ghost of his dead sister, Bianca. She looked just as she had in life, but now she was translucent. She was still wearing her puffy jacket and the silver headband that her girlfriend had gotten her a couple days before she died, her long, brown hair sat in a loose braid over her shoulder, and she smiled at him just like she had when she said goodnight a few weeks ago. That was the last thing he heard her say.  
She came to him that night, three weeks since her death, looking at him from the foot of his bed. He almost screamed for his dad when he saw her. She didn’t stay long, just long enough to tell him to stop searching for her and that she loved him, but it was enough to make him cry himself to sleep.  
He told his dad the next morning before school.  
“Dad, I saw Bianca last night,” he said over a pomegranate pop tart.  
“You’re still having dreams about her? We can sign you up to see someone,” his dad offered, not bothering to look up from the morning paper. His dad was a mortician, so death wasn’t a hard thing for him to deal with, even the death of Nico’s mother, but the death of his only daughter had thrown him off guard, something that his dad handled by being disappointed in Nico.  
Nico agrees that it was his fault; he should have never trusted those kids. He never should’ve entrusted Percy Jackson with someone so important. Yes it was his fault that Bianca was dead, he was the one who convinced her to sneak out, but it was Nico’s fault for wanting to hang out with Percy and his friends, to pretend to be one of the big kids.  
“No, I don’t need to see anyone; nothing is wrong with me.” He’s been telling himself that since Bianca’s death, but it has yet to work.  
“If it keeps up for another week, we’re taking you to see someone. Now go to school.”

People were giving Nico looks, just like they had every day since Bianca’s ‘untimely demise’ as the principal had called it. The day went by just like normal, with everyone pitying him, him getting irritated, Percy and his girlfriend asking if he was okay, him getting even more irritated, and Percy getting pissed and walking away.  
He saw more people on his walk home, more people than he had seen in the past short while that they had been in this town. It was a Monday, so it didn’t make sense for so many people to just be milling about on the street. None of them were even talking to each other; they were all just separate, one-person groups just going about their business.  
It took him until Friday to realize that no one else could see them, hear, or even feel the space that they took up.  
He hadn’t seen Bianca since Sunday night, and he had once again made the mistake of telling his dad about the people he saw on the streets all week.  
From that day on, he learned not to tell his father, or his psychologist, anything.


	2. Chapter 2

Three years of seeing a psychiatrist, one that doesn’t even listen, three times a week can have a startling effect on the mind of a young boy. So can medicine when you don’t really need it.  
Nico Di Angelo learned all of this the hard way.  
He told his father that the streets had been abnormally crowded today, and it had turned out that Hades had been at that part of town to. Needless to say, his father wasn’t reassured to hear that Nico was having a bad day.  
Before Nico could say Bianca, for probably the hundredth time that week, he had been put into therapy. Don’t get him wrong, Dr. Apollo was a good man, or at least he seemed like one, but there was nothing more annoying than someone who disregarded everything you said.  
“Nico, right?” Dr. Apollo asked, as if he didn’t have all types of notes on his computer.  
“Yeah.” If he gave enough one-word answers, would his father let him leave?  
“And you’re how old?”  
“Eleven.”  
“Any siblings?” That… that wasn’t a necessary question.  
“Yes. No. Not anymore,” Nico snapped, digging the nail of his thumb underneath the first knuckle of his index finger.  
“I’m very sorry to hear that. I have a son that’s only a couple years older than you.” So Bianca’s age. “He looks exactly like me.”  
“Is he just as meddlesome as you?”  
“Big word for an eleven year old.”  
“Maybe to you it is.”  
The rest of the one-hour meeting goes something just like that; Dr. Apollo asks getting-to-know-you questions and Nico answers them in a snappish sarcastic matter.   
“You’re a funny kid Nico; I like you.”   
Nico tries not to blush.

At the next meeting, only the next Tuesday, Dr. Apollo asks Nico about his interests.  
“Mythology.”  
Dr. Apollo throws his head back in a laugh but cuts it off when he looks into Nico’s eyes. “I’m sorry. That was very inappropriate. I was just laughing because it’s ironic that your father’s name is Hades and he’s the owner of a funeral home.”  
“Yeah well your name’s Apollo and you’re a doctor,” Nico snaps. Apollo is quiet for a second and he feels bad, but then the man is throwing his head back in laughter once again. It makes Nico feel…warm, as though the sun were shining directly onto him. “I apologize. That was rude; you’ve worked hard for your title.”  
“Oh it’s fine! My sister jokes about the same damn thing, but enough about me. Let’s talk about you.” Suddenly Dr. Apollo is very solemn, but his mouth still tilts up at the corners.  
That’s exactly what Nico was trying to avoid. He wants to cooperate. He doesn’t want to be difficult; his father already has it hard enough. He’s torn between not wanting to seem crazy and not wanting to bring up Bianca.  
It’s better to just ease into it he supposes.  
“About a month ago, some new kid transferred to our school, mine and Bianca’s. He was weird and super hairy but nice nonetheless. He had these two friends, Annabeth and Percy.” It’s all Nico can do to not spat out the name. “They were cool in that older kid way. I wanted to hand out with them and Bianca wouldn’t let me go alone. They weren’t goody-two-shoes, and we had gotten into trouble. Broke into a junk yard. Bianca got hurt. And it was all my fault.”  
It was the most he had spoken in two weeks, and the look on Dr. Apollo’s face made him regret it. “Nico, I understand what it’s like to feel as though someone’s death is your fault. It sucks.” That was the least profressional phrase he had ever heard. “But in time, I know you can learn to accept the fact that things happen for a reason. Now, our time i-“  
“How is Bianca dying for a reason? What reason is there to take her from me, leaving me with these confusing feelings?! Why are there so many people around? Why’re there so many people that say they care, but they don’t talk to me. They think I’m weird.” By the end of his speech, all of the fight has left him. He can’t do it anymore. He doesn’t want to do it anymore.  
He apologizes and see himself out, embarrassed, only to find that his father isn’t there yet. He goes to the bathroom, spending too long washing his hands before he looks into the mirror, flinching at the sight of his paler face and his darker, red-rimmed eyes.  
“Hey. I know you can hear me, I looked at your file, so don’t pretend you can’t.” Nico turns around, startled, to see a boy, perhaps a young man, his neck crimson as though rimmed with blood.  
Nico’s scared, that’s obvious to the both of them, but just as the man is opening his mouth, his father is pushing open the bathroom door, eyes flaring.  
Hades looked in the direction of Nico’s gaze, but they didn’t focus on the young man. Nico took the opportunity to leave the bathroom, taking a second to bask in the protection his father provided.


End file.
